Now, the Lord Jesus Christ, as
a man on this earth, was first and foremost a preacher. preacher. One time, he said,
let us go into the other cities to preach the gospel, for thereunto
am I sent. First and foremost, preacher,
messenger of the covenant, the prophet said. Look at chapter
4, verse 23. It says, Jesus went about all
Galilee teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the
kingdom. Our Lord was first and foremost
a preacher. He certainly elevated this office,
didn't He? It makes it important. God's
Son was a preacher. Here in chapter 5 is what is
commonly known by most folks as His Sermon on the Mount. But it's not just a sermon. This is a message from God. This
is Christ speaking here. Look at verse 1. It says, verse
1, when he was set, he went up into the mountains, and when
he was set, his disciples came unto him, and he opened his mouth
and taught them. And when I open my mouth, what
comes out of this mouth, my words are really no That said, whether you believe
what I say or not, is not important. But now, what comes out of God's
mouth, and that's all a true preacher wants to do, is deliver
the message from God's word. This is, man doesn't live by
bread alone, our Lord said, but by every word which proceedeth.
from the mouth of God. God's word is his word. It comes from his mouth. Christ
was and is the mouth of God. So he opened his mouth. This
is more than just a sermon. This is a message from God, and
he's going to talk about blessings, true blessings. Now, there's
a fellow over in Rome who likes to think that he pronounces benedictions
on people. Blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed,
blessed, blessed. No human being can pronounce
blessings on anybody. Nobody can pronounce benedictions
or blessings upon another. But this one can and does. He is the only, Scripture says,
potentate. And he's the one who pronounces
blessings. And he's going to do so right now. Nine or ten
blessings. Verse 3, Blessed, he said, blessed
are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God. Blessed. Now, I want you to notice
every single blessing he speaks of. Now, blessing, blessed, means
that you have been Someone blessed you. Blessed, that's both past
tense and present tense. Someone who's blessed is someone
who has received favor or blessings from God himself. God is the
only one who can bless with these blessings. Blessed. Notice with
me as we look at this. Every single blessing says blessed
are. Blessed are. Present tense. They have been and they are right
now, blessed always, and it is a continual thing. It doesn't
say blessed shall be, but blessed are. Let's look at them one by
one. Verse 3, Blessed are the poor
in spirit. Our Lord says this first thing. This is the first thing he said.
Blessed are the poor in spirits. You see, the blessings of God.
are spiritual blessings. Our Lord says this in Ephesians. He said, Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places or things, and they are
in Christ. Spiritual blessings. Now, material
things, material wealth, and so forth, is no indication of
the blessings of God. Oh, the Lord makes rich, and
the Lord makes poor. The Lord give it, and the Lord
take it away. Anything anyone has, they've
received it from the hands of God. The God who owns all the
gold and silver in the mines, the Scripture says, the God who
owns all the cattle on a thousand hills, anybody who has anything,
received it from the Lord. But now, because someone has
a lot of these things, that's not the blessings, necessarily,
of God. It might be a curse upon them. And I'm not going to go into
this, but Satan, in tempting our Lord, said that there was
a certain degree of these things that he could give to people.
the things of this world. You look that up for yourself
sometimes. But these things are not necessarily the blessing.
Now, the Scripture says blessed are the poor in spirit. Spiritually poor. Poor in spirit. What does it mean to be poor?
Go over to the book of Romans with me. Romans chapter 3. What
does it mean to be spiritually poor? We have somebody that is
poor materially. is someone who has nothing. Right. Someone who's poor I mean truly
poor and we don't know much about poverty in this country really
we really don't. We don't see too many down out
and out. Penniless beggars. I know you
see some of these fellows on the street corner and rowing
open so forth with their signs and maybe maybe one or two of
them is somewhat destitute but I'm telling you the truth some
of them are in a ring a begging ring that they they're in the
business they might have stocks and bonds in the bank probably
you know. They work harder at not working. And working. That's a fact that I have been
in Mexico and Santo Domingo Dominican Republic and other places Spain
and Spain True beggars and perhaps you have to. I mean truly poverty
stricken people where the government doesn't help them. Nobody helps
them. They are on the street corner and they are truly penniless
beggars. They have nothing. I mean they
don't have anything. They don't have a penny of their
name and they are totally dependent on someone to give them a handout.
Totally dependent on the grace or the goodness the handout of
somebody else. This is what it means to be poor
in spirit. Look at Romans chapter 3. Now
it says this, whether men know it or not, this is true of all
of us. Verse 10 through 12. There is
none righteous. No, not one. There is none that
understand it. There is none. Notice how he
keeps saying none. There's none. There's none. None
that do it good. No, not one. There's none that
understand it. They're all, verse 12, they're all going out of
the way. Together become unprofitable.
There's none that do it good. No, not one. Look over chapter 7 with me,
Romans chapter 7. Look at this. What it means to
be spiritually poor is to realize that you have no goodness in
you. Nothing that can commend you
to God Almighty. You have no Faith, so to speak,
no strength, nothing in you. Look at Romans chapter 7, verses
15 through 18. God's people feel this way. Paul
says, verse 15, that which I do, I allow not, or that is, I don't
want to do it. What I do, I don't want to do.
What I would, or that is, what I would like to do, what I want
to do, I don't do that. But what I hate, that's what
I do. Is that anybody in here? That's every one of God's people.
This is what God's people feel. Look at verse 18. I know that
in me, I know this, he said, that in me, that is, in my flesh
dwelleth no good thing. I can't find any goodness in
me whatsoever. What I need, what Paul says and
what every believer says, and the truly blessed, the poor in
spirit, say, I need a handout from God. I mean, I need God
to give me everything. I need Him to give me mercy.
I need Him to give me grace. I need Him to give me help. I
need Him to give me righteousness. I need Him to give me everything. I need Him to take me all the
way to glory. Because I can't get there, I can't find, in myself,
I can't find anything. No ability,
no nothing. I'm poor. And our Lord says in the text,
He said, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Heaven is a rich place, a very
rich place. But it's only for poor people. It's only for poor. Who needs
food? The hungry. Who needs money? The poor. And
so it is. Those who are rich in morality,
or those who are rich in their own self-worth, or those who
think themselves to be something when they're nothing, they don't
need this gospel. But now this gospel's for the
poor. Our Lord said, you go tell them if the poor have the gospel
preached unto them. Blessed are the poor. God's people never seem to rise
above being poor. One day I think, oh, I have faith.
Now I have faith. Yeah, I have a lot of faith.
The next day I can't find any at all. One day I may feel like
I'm strong. Oh, I believe I'm strong. The
next day I feel like a weak coward. Is that so with you? Poor, poor
and needy. David said, I'm poor and needy.
with the Lord thinketh on them. And each one of these things
follows the other. Lest it be they that mourn, all
who are poor. Go over to Psalm 38 with me. So many of you are well acquainted
with Psalm 38, because it is the very thoughts and intents
of your heart. It's the very outpouring of your
heart. Psalm 38, all poor in spirit, all who have nothing
within. They mourn over that poverty.
They mourn over their sin, over their wretched condition. Look
at Psalm 38, beginning with verse 2. David said, Thine arrows,
that is, God's word, stick fast in me. God's word convicts me.
It presses me sore. Verse 3, There is no soundness
in my flesh because of thine anger. Neither is there any rest
in my bones because of my sin. Mine iniquities are gone over
my head. They're a heavy burden. They're
too heavy for me. Verse 5, my wounds stink and are corrupt
because of my foolishness. I'm troubled. This troubles me,
my sin. I'm bowed down greatly. This
has got me down. I go mourning all the day long. I mourn because of my wretched,
sinful condition. Is that you? Blessed are they
that mourn, right now. Not blessed are they that did
mourn, but blessed are they that mourn. All who mourn, our Lord
said, look over at the text, they shall be comforted. To all who have this heavy burden
of their own sin, the Lord says they'll be comforted. I'm going
to remove the burden. Our Lord said in Isaiah's gospel,
it is Isaiah's gospel, our Lord said this to the preacher, Comfort
ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably
to Jerusalem. Cry unto her, and here's her
comfort, that her warfare is accomplished. You're not going
to have to do battle to get into heaven. The Lord did that for
his people. And her, tell her for this, for her comfort, tell
her this, her iniquity is pardon. That sin that is ever before
you, it's not before the Lord. That past life that you can't
forget, God has. That's comforting, isn't it?
That guilt that you feel, there is therefore now no condemnation
to them there in Christ. Christ says, like to the woman
at his feet, Neither do I condemn thee." Tell her this for her
comfort. Tell her, she hath received of
the Lord's hand double for all her sins. This is for the comfort of God's
people who mourn over their sin. Tell them they have received
double for all their sins. They have not only received mercy,
not only has God spared them what their sins deserve, mercy,
but they received grace, all grace. Not only have they received
forgiveness, not only has God forgiven all their sin, pardoned
their iniquity, he's unjustified them. Not only have they received
peace, not only is God not angry with them, he adopts them as children, double
for all their sin. This is for their comfort. Blessed
are they that mourn. They're going to hear this gospel
of comfort. The gospel comforts. The gospel
is a comforting message, but only to those that mourn. Only to those that mourn over
their sinful condition. Verse 5 in Matthew 5, "'Blessed
are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.'"
What this poverty of spirit and what this mourning over your
sin does, causes you to be, is meek. Go over to the book of
James with me. The book of James. Blessed are
the meek. Now, folks, the thing that characterizes
modern man more than anything is pride. Pride. Well, that characterizes man
from every generation. But Paul told young Timothy,
in the last days perilous times shall come. Men shall be lovers
of themselves, proud. Covetous, boasters, proud. You
know it so. Look around you, haughty, proud
and haughty spirited, and look upon every face from our young
people on up. Pride, wouldn't you have to admit
with me that pride is the ugliest thing there is? You can take
a beautiful woman, a woman who's physically attractive and beautiful,
but if she has a haughty look on her face, If she, like these
models and all who are strutting down the aisle thinking they're
something, that makes them positively ugly to me. Doesn't it, you?
Sure it does. If pride is odious or ugly to
us human beings, what is it to God? God said in Proverbs 6,
there's six things the Lord hates, yet seven are abomination. And
the first thing the Lord hates, the thing that's most detestable
to the Lord, is a proud look. Anybody can look like there's
something, know something, are something, can do something.
God hates it. Absolutely hates it. He said
the pride he is able to abase. Why does God hate pride so much?
Because what do we have that we have not received? What does
anybody have that they have not received from God? God who makes
us to differ. A beautiful woman or Man is God
that makes a difference. The reason they were not born
disfigured, God made the difference. They had nothing to do with the
way they looked. On a mind, a sharp mind, the
only reason they weren't born incapacitated is God. Everything man has, an accumulation
of goods, all comes from the Lord. So for someone to be proud
is utterly But meekness now. Meekness is the most beautiful
thing there is. Don't you think it's a very endearing
quality when you see someone who's obviously a meek person?
You see them. You see a few, not many, but
a few. And the thing that generally
characterizes meekness in someone is that they don't look up much. You notice that? Meek people
don't look in the eye. They look down as one is unworthy
to lift the head. Meekness is humility. Meekness is not thinking too
highly of oneself, but rather low thoughts of self, unable
to look up. James chapter 4, verses 9 and
10, the Lord said, Be afflicted and mourn. and weep. Let your laughter be
turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves
in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up." He shall
lift you up. A meek sinner is like that woman
in the Scriptures who was bowed down with an infirmity for thirty-eight
years, I believe it. It was eighteen years. Scripture
says she was bowed down. And you've seen these little,
mostly little ladies, but some men, old ladies, you know, just
absolutely bent over, double almost. But this woman was that way,
bowed down. And this is what sin does to
us, spiritually speaking. Makes you unable to lift your
head toward God. But God. Christ came along, the
Scripture says, and lifted her up, straightened her up. Straighten her up. Or like that
woman that fell at his feet, the Lord lifted her up. Lifted
her up. Ah, blessed are the meek. They
shall inherit the earth, the Scripture said. God's going to
have in his new earth. Now, this is talking about the
new earth, not talking about this earth, folks. God's going
to destroy this earth. The Scriptures are very plain
about that. This is talking about the new earth, the place that
God has reserved, that God is going to make and reserve for
his people. Who are they? They're meek, every
one of them. Self-effacing, self-humbling, God-honoring, God-exalting, Christ-exalting. Those who realize they're nothing
and everything they have comes from God. Unworthy. This is who
God's going to have inhabit his new earth. All those who are
truly appreciative. You know, you'd give an old beggar
any kind of house. You'd dress him up and take him
home with you and give him a place. He'd be real grateful, wouldn't
he? He'd be real grateful. Not somebody
who has a house, but someone who doesn't. That's who God's
going to give this new earth to. Those who truly appreciate
it. Verse 6. Blessed are... Verse
6, yeah. Blessed are they which do hunger
and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." Hunger
and thirst after righteousness. Righteousness is just what you
think it is. It's goodness. It's holiness. Now, you remember when we read
over there in Romans 7 that Paul said, Oh, what I want to do,
I can't do it. I wanted to. But soon. He wanted to do that which was
right because. That anybody in here but you
would you like to be without saying anybody would you like
to be I mean. Holy good. Truly good person. This is something
that God puts within all his people I mean a true desire after
holiness. The natural man doesn't have
any interest in being holy or good. He wants to be as mean
as he can. He wants to be as rotten as he
can. It's real popular. But not God's people. David said,
I esteem all thy precepts to be right. David said, the commandment
is holy. Paul said, the commandment is
holy. It's just as good. And Paul said,
this is what I want to do. I want to be like Christ, that's
who I want to be like, just like Jesus Christ. I want to be holy
and righteous without sin. Romans 10 verse 4 says this,
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness for everyone
to believe. All those who hunger and thirst
after death, Christ says, I have it, I give it, freely give it,
freely give it. All who hunger and thirst for
it, they shall be filled," the Scripture says. They shall be
filled, that is, complete in Him. Complete. Jesus Christ,
the righteous. Listen carefully now. Listen
to me carefully. The Scripture talks about, Cursed
are they which are trying to be righteous without Christ. Romans 10 says there are some
people who have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge,
because they are going about to establish their own righteousness.
In other words, you can turn over a new leaf, you are going
to quit this, you are going to quit that, and not do this, not do that,
and try to be doing this and doing that, which is all fine,
but don't think for a moment that God Almighty is pleased
with that, that God Almighty lets you into heaven because
of that. No, sir. What does it take? What does it take for anybody
to get into heaven? Absolute perfect. Righteous in
thought, in motive, in word, everywhere. Indeed, how long? After you quit, after you sow
your oats? No, no, no. From the cradle to the grave.
Perfection. Who can do that? Well, there's none righteous.
No, not one. Christ came down. This is why
Jesus Christ came to this planet, not to show us how to live, per
se, although He did, but that wasn't the primary reason He
came. He came to establish that perfect life, to perform that
perfect life as a man, in thought. He never thought in evil, in
motive. His motive was perfect, never
selfish, always for the glory of God, for love toward others.
In words, every word out of his mouth, there was no murmuring,
no complaining, no cursing, no bitterness, always blessing,
always the right thing. And indeed, everything he did
was good. In him, no sin. Well, he did that for, and he's
at hunger and thirst for that right. All who hunger and thirst. Christ did that for them. Now,
those that think they're all right, Christ didn't do it for
them. He didn't die for them. He didn't live for them. And
they're going to stand before God someday in their own merit. Here I am, God. Aren't you glad
to see me? Ain't I a good boy? And God's
going to say, find him hand and foot. What he's saying is Jesus
Christ didn't need to come. He could have got here by himself.
But Jesus Christ didn't need to die. Him turning over a new
leaf, that's going to wipe out everything he's done against
God. bind your hand and foot, and cast him into the lake of
fire." And what he's going to say to an old boy like a thief
who's done nothing but sin all his life, never done one good
thing all his life, this thief comes in before him with his
head hanging—well, his head's not going to be hanging there.
But he's going to come before the Lord as a poor, mourning,
broken, poverty-stricken sinner in need of mercy and grace. God's
going to say, put the best robe on him. Put the ring on him and
shoes on his feet. Put him up here right beside
me. This is one of mine. He's going to dwell with me for
all eternity. This thief! Get that Pharisee
out of my sight! He smells. He smells self-righteous
to me. But this old boy smells like
Christ to me. I smell faith in Christ. It's
a sweet-smelling savor to me. Come into your kingdom, you blessed
of the Lord. hunger and thirst, that the righteousness
that only Christ had. Hunger and thirst is, as long
as you live, as long as you're living, you're going to hunger
and thirst. Aren't you? You show me somebody that's made
a little profession years ago and, you know, made their peace
with God and got right to the Lord, accepted Jesus or whatever,
and then you don't see them for years. They're not hungry. They're not alive. This is a
sign of life. Hunger and thirst. Hunger and thirst. This is a
sign of life. And that hunger and thirst keeps
you coming to the table. Doesn't it? Keeps you coming
to the table at the food. Doesn't matter how much you eat.
We got some folks in here that just eat so much. You would never know it by looking
at John Davis there, but he just eats a ton of food. They bring
a truckload every day. Seems like it, Ed Berry. Some
of these little fellas just wolf it down, wolf it down. They must
be, they're real alive. If they ever quit eating, they must be dead. Like I was
going to say, John keeps coming to the table, doesn't he? You
know, it's calling twice, not very often. Hunger and thirst. God's people, you don't even
have to call them to the table. They're there waiting on you. Peter said, To whom cunning,
present tense, continual. Why? They're hungry. The Lord
said to the preachers, Feed my sheep. That's how you know they're
sheep. They're hungry. Hungry. hunger and thirst. Christ said, did not Christ say,
come unto me? Any man that thirsts, any man
that thirsts. Look at the next thing. Blessed
are the merciful. Verse 7. Blessed are the merciful,
for they shall obtain mercy. God doesn't have to. This is
what, people, this is what's so wrong and so blasphemous about
modern day preachers and preaching and religion is that everybody
thinks they have something coming to them. Preachers make everybody
think that they, God ought to show mercy. Mercy, by definition,
means something you don't deserve. Mercy, by definition, means God
sparing people what they do deserve. The wages of sin is death. This
is what man deserves. Man deserves to be cast out of
God's sight. Man doesn't deserve the love
of God, the salvation of God, the mercy of God. It's of the
Lord's mercies, the Scripture says, that we're not consumed
by his wrath and his anger against a wretched race of creatures. Salvation is by sovereign, that
is, he decides who gets it. Nobody deserves it. Sovereign
mercy. Oh, blessed is the man or the
woman or young person upon whom God shows mercy. He doesn't have
to show it to anybody. I walk through my yard and there's
a pile of ants. This is so. A pile of ants. They're messing up my yard. They
don't do anything for me. I don't get any glory out of
them. They're trespassing. Do I have to show mercy? Do I
have to allow them to live there? Do I have to love them? Spare
them? Not if I don't want to. What if some little ant raises
his hand and says, hey, I've decided to let you be my be my
landowner. I decided, I decided to let you
decide to let me. Now, it's plumb mercy if I don't
step on those creatures. It's absolute mercy. Don't have to. Salvation is not mercy. Sovereign
mercy, blessed a day that I have received mercy of the Lord."
Mercy. They have obtained mercy. Well,
what does this make those who have obtained mercy, who realize
it is for the Lord's mercy that I am not consumed? He's spared
me. He's pardoned me. He's forgiven
me. I've received double at the hands
of... What does this make them? Merciful. They can't help but
be merciful. This is an absolute fact, folks.
Mark it down. Mark it down, a man who's received
mercy is a merciful man. Mark it down. You know it's so. Most religious people are some
of the meanest people you know, aren't they? That's not true
of a man who's really received mercy. A man who's received mercy,
when the love of God is shed abroad in a man's heart, he himself
is a loving man. When the mercy of God has been
experienced, that person shows mercy, realizing, huh, God sure
spared me. Why can't I spare someone who's
no worse than I am, better than me? Mark it down now. A hard,
unbending man or woman is going to get strict justice from God.
An unloving man or woman, God doesn't love that person. A man
wrathful and quick to anger, God's going to show his anger.
Mark it down. Mark it down. Oh, but blessed
are the merciful. They shall obtain mercy. We're
going to need mercy all the rest of our days. We're going to need
mercy. Bless God. We're going to receive
it. He said His mercy endures forever.
We're going to need mercy to the day we die because we're
going to be sinners to the day we die. Look at the next thing.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. The pure
in heart. Pure means something that's unmixed. Very simple. Anything that's
pure, it's not a mixture of things, but it's one thing. Pure. Pure in heart. Undiluted.
Unmixed. Now, Jeremiah said this about
the heart. about the natural heart, about the average man's
heart. He said, it's deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked who can know it. That's what God's Word says about
man's heart by nature, doesn't it? And you hear people say this,
I don't know. I know God knows my heart. He
sure does. He sure does. You don't even
know it. But he does. See, the heart's deceitful. It
deceives the person into thinking, hey, I'm alright, I'm pretty
good. But now the Lord said this. In
Ezekiel 36, He said, I'm going to take away that stony heart,
that deceitful heart, that sinful heart. I'm going to take it out and give them a new heart, a
pure heart. I mean a heart that's pure through
and through. I don't mean without sin, people,
but I mean a heart that's not mixed with faith in yourself
and faith in God. You hear people say that all
the time, don't you? Well, you know, you hear some athletes
say, well, I heard a man say this one time.
I think he pitched a no-hitter or something. He said, well,
it takes a lot of faith and a lot of luck. What? It can't be both. It can't be God and luck. There
is no such thing as luck. A pure heart, when God Almighty
reveals the truth to someone, He makes them realize from the
heart, man believe it. He makes them believe from the
heart that salvation is absolutely 100% by God's sovereign grace. Not my word. It's not works and
grace. It's not my faith and God's mercy. It's not my accepting Jesus.
No. It's one hundred percent, through
and through. No mixture of God and me at all.
It's one hundred percent of the Lord, salvation, pure. You can
ask—God asked any saint who comes to his heaven, why are you here?
It's out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.
There's only one thing that comes out of the mouth of all of God's
people. Only one thing. It's not anything. Only one thing
comes out of the mouth of all God's true people who have a
pure heart that has faith in Christ and Christ alone. One
thing. Him. Why am I here? Him. Unto Him
that loved me and died for me. Unto Him. I'm here because of
Him. Not I, me, and mine. Of course,
He hath. Pure. Pure. Oh, yeah. All God's people have pure hearts,
pure faith, pure Christ. No mixture. Not any of my glory
and Christ's glory. His glory. His glory. That's
how you know a true preacher. You can tell them apart. Yes,
you can. You'll eventually tell them.
Somehow or another, that false fellow is going to get some glory
to himself. Somehow, some way, his name, something, his face,
draw attention to himself, how spiritual he is, how much he's
prayed, how many souls he's won, something, he's going to get
his own glory out of it. But now, the true preacher of
Christ is going to point you 100 percent to Christ, Christ,
Christ, Christ. Purely. They're going to see
God. They're going to see God. Those who really want to see
God are going to see God. Those who want to see heaven
are going to see it on the outside. Those who want to see mama are
going to see it on the outside. Those who want to see God, their
heart's desire is that they might know him. David said, there's
none that I desire besides thee. Who have I in heaven but me,
and there's none on earth I desire to be? Thou art my portion."
Their religion is not a social club. It's not a YMCA. It's Christ. Worship of God. They don't see God. There they
are. Verse 9, "'Blessed are the peacemakers.'"
I've got to hurry. "'Blessed are the peacemakers, and they shall be called the
children of God.'" Peacemakers. All who see God, who see Christ,
who see Christ as their peace, all who have obtained peace from
God through Christ, his blood, are peaceable people. David said
that in another place. He said, they're for war, not
for peace. They'll be called the children
of God, peacemakers. They'd rather make peace, rather
have peace. Fruit of righteousness is sown
in peace by them that make peace, James said. They're peaceable
people. They'll be called the children
of God. You know, God, who is the Father of His children, passes
these virtues on to His children, just like you do your own. Every trait, some degree of your
traits, are passed on to your children. And so it is with God's people. God, peace, and he's passed this
virtue on to his children. Verse 10, blessed are they which
are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven. Righteousness' sake. Bear with me another moment.
Peter said this. He said, who is he that will
harm you if you be followers of that which is good? He's not
talking here about if you be a good person, you'll be persecuted. That's not what he's saying.
Peter said that. Nobody will harm you if you just
be a follower of that which is good. Are you with me? This needs
to be understood. Blessed are they which are persecuted
for righteousness' sake. And in the next verse he said,
Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you
and say all manner of evil against you falsely for whose sake? Christ's sake. My sake, Christ's
sake. and persecuted and reviled and lied on for my sake. All
right, let me illustrate this in closing. Noah, the man Noah, Scripture says Noah was a preacher
of righteousness. That's what it said. Most people
don't know that Scripture. Most people, all they think about
is an old bearded fellow who saved all the animals. That's
not what this story is about, folks. That's not what it's about. The whole story is about Jesus
Christ. Noah represents Christ. The ark
represents Christ. The door represents Christ. The
window represents Christ. The dove with the olive branch
represents Christ. It's all about Christ. Salvation
is in the ark. Christ. Noah, the scripture says,
was a preacher. For 120 years he preached. Every blow of his hammer, he
preached. What'd he preach? Well, he preached, judgment's
coming. The rain's gonna fall. Rain? It never rained before. People didn't believe it. They
laughed at it. Rain. Nobody. None of these other
preachers talk about rain. Noah? It's coming. Noah, nobody believes that. God
said it. Noah was a preacher of God's
righteousness, God's absolute holiness and justice, and yes,
wrath against sin. With every blow of that hammer,
it's coming. God's angry with the wicked every
day. Judgment's coming. God is righteous. God is holy.
God's going to destroy that place. Oh, Noah, get out of here. And every day, and then Noah
started pitching. Noah started putting that pitch
all over that ark. Got him a bucket of black tar.
It looked ugly, and everybody within the refinements said,
That's ugly, Noah. What are you doing? Pitching
it. I'm covering it. Because when this wrath comes
through, this water comes through, only those in this boat will
escape that wrath, and only if this pitch is on it, it won't
spring a leak. And what this is, is God's Son! God's Blood! God's Atonement! The word pitch means propitiation,
covering. This ark has to be covered with
blood, or pitch, so it won't spring. No judgment, no water
can enter into that, sink it, make it shipwrecked. Judgment's coming. You've got
to be in this ark that's covered with pitch, and that's God's
Son. He will come down to this earth to be the righteousness
of God and to be the sin payment. He's got to be under the blood,
under the blood. He's got to be in Christ by faith. He's got
to be under his shed blood where the wrath of God is coming down
on your head. Noah was a preacher of righteousness.
Not his own, but Christ's righteousness. His whole 120 years of preaching
was around a boat. All his life was spent working
on a Bible. Every time somebody came up to
him, he'd say, get this Bible. He was a preacher of Christ.
That's what that represents, and it's true today. Blessed
are they that are persecuted for righteousness' sake. Now,
you say these same things that I just said, and the world will
laugh at you, the modern world. Ah, it's never rained fire before.
No, it hasn't. No, it hasn't. But God said so. Oh, we can get there on our own.
We're pretty good fellows. We'll get no sir, only by Christ. Only in Christ. That's too narrow. That's too narrow. The Muslims
are sincere. The Hindus are sincere. The Buddhists are sincere. That
one way, that one, oh no, God loves everybody. It's not so. Not so. It's one lie. One truth. One lie. You'll be persecuted. And laugh
that. No laughing stock. Ah, but he
said, blessed are you. You're blessed if you realize
this. If you know this. And they'll lie on you. They'll
lie on you, call you a cult, call you this, call you that,
but ah, this is what they said about the prophets. This is what
they said about Isaiah. Jeremiah, Ezekiel, all of us,
what they said of that, you're in good company. If you persecute
woes unto you, men speak well of you. He's a good little preacher. We like him. Must not be telling
the truth. Blessed are you when you persecute
a righteous disciple. He's righteous. All right, let's
sing a closing hymn, Brother Gabe, please. you Okay. you Okay.